‘Babylon A.D.’ makes the future watchable

Science fiction novels have always been fertile ground for Hollywood to find new material for films. There is so much material that can potentially be adapted to the big screen. Maurice G. Dantec’s novel, “Babylon Babies” is no different as 20th Century Fox has just released its adaptation, “Babylon A.D.” to DVD.

The film stars Vin Diesel as Toorop, a veteran-turned-mercenary living in Russia who is recruited to take a very special girl, Aurora (Mélanie Thierry) and her guardian, Sister Rebeka (Michelle Yeoh), through the former Soviet Union and into America where a dark organization, the Noelites, headed by The High Priestess (Charlotte Rampling), is waiting on the young girl.

Unknown to Toorop, the young girl is also being sought after by the girl’s ‘father’ Dr. Arthur Darquandier (Lambert Wilson) who explains to Toorop that the girl is more than meets the eye. Toorop must then decide if he will turn the girl over for the bounty or risk his own life to save her.

Vin Diesel is one of those actors that you have to be in the mood to watch a film with him in it. Especially given the kinds of movies he’s made. As much as I hate to say it, his previous sci-fi efforts (‘Pitch Black’ & ‘The Chronicles of Riddick’) are among my guilty pleasures.

Diesel manages to turn in a good performance in this very watchable film. The director, Mathieu Kassovitz, who’s also responsible for the dreadful supernatural-thriller ‘Gothika,’ does a great job presenting his vision of the novel.

EXTRAS

* Babylon Babies – Maurice G. Dantec talks about his novel, “Babylon Babies” and his involvement in the film. He can, at times, be a quite full of himself making this feature a hard watch.

* Arctic Escape – For a big snow mobile sequence, the stunt coordinator hired a highly specialized snow mobile crew named ‘Slednecks’ to help execute a scene which originally started as a transition sequence. The hiring of ‘Slednecks’ to execute the stunts gave the production an opportunity to turn up the action.

* Fit For The Screen – You can never have enough cage fighters. This short featurette talks about the many different kinds of stunts, stuntmen, martial artists, cage fighters and the choreography behind many of the big fight sequences in the film. This is about the only time you’ll get to really hear Vin Diesel talk about the movie and the sad part is that it wasn’t even made for the special features. His interview is from a press junket.

* Hummers In Flight – Nothing says action movie like a good car chase scene. In this short, a stunt coordinator (Kenny Bates) shares his thoughts on a scene that had been cut from the film, but then reinserted. Several Hummers and Range Rovers were used in a high octane chase.

* Prequel To Babylon A.D: Genesis of Aurora – This is an animated comic that gives you a back story to Aurora’s origins. Maybe they should have shot this as part of the film and not as a comic?

* Babylon A.D. Commercials

* Deleted Scene – Hummer Sequence – Remember that scene that Kenny Bates went through all the trouble to put together. Well, if you didn’t see it in the film it would be because it was cut- again. Its a really great chase scene that should have been left in the film. Finally, a cut piece of film that should have been left in!

* Still Galleries

* Trailers

I should also point out that there is an “Inside Look” to another film I reviewed here, ‘Behind Enemy Lines: Colombia.‘ They cleverly stuck that little featurette on the disc in hopes to improve its sales, I imagine. If you feel like your kids have misbehaved or that you should be punished for breaking that lamp back in 1986, then go ahead and watch it. Otherwise, just leave it alone.

The extras have lots of behind the scenes footage and that’s always a great thing when you get as many featurettes as you do with this film. And what’s more important than anything is that you feel like you’re getting lots of information about the production and about how the cast approached their roles. And although you don’t get to hear much from Diesel (or anyone else from the cast, for that matter), the extras deliver enough information for them to make the cut.

I’m normally not a big Vin Diesel fan. Especially with those horrible ‘Fast & Furious’ movies he was in. And after he took a stab at comedy, ‘The Pacifier,’ and the more dramatic, ‘Find Me Guilty,’ I was sure that he’d be opening malls soon or find himself in straight to video films with C. Thomas Howell. But Diesel turns in a sincere performance that makes you interested in seeing how the story plays out. I’d recommend you at least try renting ‘Babylon A.D.’ before you decide to add this title to your collection.